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9.14.2008

Holy cow!

The Cubs took it to the Astros and won it 5-0 … What more can I say? He was just two walked batters from being perfect …

I was sort of flipping channels between the Brewers game too, but the Phillies were blowing them out -- again -- and once Big Z was rolling by the fifth or sixth, I wasn’t moving …

Then in the ninth, ESPN picked up the feed and I had to call my pops to make sure he was watching. He wasn’t, but I got him to change channels and we got to share the moment together …

Zambrano deserves it too. He’s been knocking at the door for a long time …

It's always fun to get riled up about a game ... To think what it must’ve been like for Cubs fans to be at Miller Park tonight. The poor Astros were supposed to be playing this game at their home ballpark, then Hurricane Ike bowled over the Texas coast …

I figured the Brewers organization would treat it much like they did the Angels-Indians series that came to Miller Park last year. Tickets were just $10; the true baseball fans -- me included -- ate it up … Then I checked for tickets, saw the prices were regularly priced -- actually the prices seemed higher -- and I quickly dropped the notion of going …

Had I gone, though, it would have been a pretty darn sweet “Hey-let’s-go-to-a-game payoff.”

Last week with Ike rolling in and the questions swirling about where the Cubs-Astros series might be played, the storyline spurred a conversation in our office. St. Louis was being tossed around as a possible spot, but I had a hunch then the series might end up at Miller Park, given the weather-proof facility and the fact the stadium hosted the Angels-Indians snow-out last year …

It also got me thinking about one other “Hey-let’s-go-to-a-game payoff” that I forgot to mention when my buddy Matt posed the question last summer …

I remember my family getting there early and staking our place in line for a chance at good seats. Then, when the gates opened, my brother and I raced down the aisle … And ended up claiming a group of seats about three rows back from the Mariners dugout on the third base side …

That night, the Royals put on a hitting display and shutout the Mariners 8-0, to win their 14th straight game. And the crowd was, arguably, as loud as I’ve ever heard it at Kauffman Stadium ... I also remember Piniella going into one of his tirades with the homeplate umpire, and we got a front row seat when a fan got into it with Piniella, too, has he came back to the dugout ...

That win was the last the Royals had during that streak. And the strike ruined the season a few days later …